January 10th City Council Meeting Notes

In case you were not able to attend this month's meeting, here are some highlights. 

First of all, the consent agenda had a money transfer from the General Fund to the Sewer Fund of $100,000.  By adding this item to the Consent agenda, rather than the regular agenda, when the council brings up the approval of the consent agenda, very rarely is there ever any discussion on any of the items listed.  This makes this money transfer almost invisible to the general public.  This transfer is in addition to the transfer last month on the December 13th, 2010, consent agenda when $79,000 was transferred from the General Fund to the Sewer Fund, which had a note next to it that it was for the SunTrust loan payment.

Also on the Consent Agenda, there were several reports approved for November and December 2010, such as the Building Report, Code Enforcement Report, Financial Statements, Library Report, and Sheriff's Office Report.  It sure would be nice if the city would post these on their web site for the public to easily access, instead of having to make a public records request to view them.  Even the section for the Sheriff's Office Reports on Polk City's web site has not be updated with the most recent reports since June 2009.  The other reports do not even have a link that we were able to find anywhere on the website.  Why not?

During the discussion of re-appointing Vice Mayor Block as Acting City Manager for yet another 30 Days, Councilman Kimsey brought up that he would like to see a change in this position, even over the possible next 3-4 months it may take to recruit a new City Manager.  He recommended that City Clerk, Patrica Jackson, fill this role during this time frame.  Before Councilman Kimsey's suggestion could be brought up, the motion to approve Ms. Block had already been put on the table and had been seconded, so the Mayor required a vote on this first.  Not surprisingly, the motion to extend Ms. Block's dual role was approved for another 30 days with a vote of 4-1, so Mr. Kimsey will have to wait another 30 days to bring this up again.

The Memorandum of Understanding for Intergovernmental Cooperation with the City of Lakeland was approved unanimously by the council.  This was something that came up during the DCA meeting on November 8th, 2010, to approve the changes needed to let developers build on the large parcel of land located on SR33 across from the new Fountain Park subdivision and BP Station at the intersection of Mt. Olive Road.  The City of Lakeland had sent a representative to the November 8th meeting to voice how the City of Lakeland had not been notified anywhere along this approval process, despite the fact that these planned changes are being made adjacent to their city limits.  The City of Lakeland's main concern was the impact of the increased traffic and congestion, mainly commercial truck traffic, on the roads in that area and the wear and tear on these roads, which could make a substantial impact on Lakeland's expenses to maintain and expand these roads servicing this area.  Interim Attorney Tom Cloud stated that following this November DCA meeting, the City of Lakeland was clearly intending to file a lawsuit against Polk City unless immediate action was taken to resolve their concerns.  This mutual agreement between the two cities to keep each other informed on these type of issues will hopefully avoid any future litigation for similar issues.

The new ad for the City Manager position is planned to run in two free statewide publications targeted at current Municipality and County Employees.  The submission deadline for the copy on these ads is 1/11/11 for the February edition of these publications.  Initially, Ms. Block recommended to opt not to advertise in an additional nationwide publication due to a cost of $300 for the ad.  Ms. Block's inexperience in placing employment ads is not aiding in her judgement, since even many local ads can easily run close to that price range.  Even the Mayor questioned this decision motivated by saving the small dollar amount, and asked if she had considered the possible desirable nationwide demographics she would not be reaching by choosing to not place this ad for this executive level position.  By her response, she had obviously not done her homework.  The discussion moved on without a definitive agreement about the placing of the nationwide ad.

Pam Lawson, the City's Financial Administrator, requested that an additional Bank Account be opened to simplify the process of utility revenue collection by the new utility management company, Woodard & Curran.  W&C is planned to take over the utility management function effective 1/12/11.  Ms. Lawson stated that once the revenues are placed in this new account, it would make it easier for her to transfer the needed revenues into whichever account needed funding, whether it be the Water Fund, Sewer Fund, or General Fund.  Currently as these revenues come in they are automatically split up by their corresponding amounts into the proper designated funds.  As seen over the last few months, the city has needed to funnel substantially more revenue into the Sewer Fund than what is normally allocated to that fund.  With this new accounting process, the allocations previously set for each fund will essentially be thrown out the window.

As part of the utility transition process over to Woodard & Curran, W&C sent a recent notice to the city informing them that an additional $14,937 "Transition Charge" would now be required in addition to the already agreed upon signed contract for services.  Ms. Block stated that this recent charge was levied due to the unexpected complexity of getting the billing, metering, and computer systems up to the standards needed to make the transition.  Ms. Block seemed reluctant, yet very willing to pay the additional charge without question or negotiation to avoid hard feelings with the new sub-contracted company.  The Mayor had issues with this additional charge since in most cases, the burden of investigating these type of issues should have been considered by W&D PRIOR to bidding the job and agreeing on a contract.  Council agreed to side-table paying this fee until further discussions/negotiations could be made with W&D on the issue.

Patricia Jackson has placed an order to get new lettering so the signage outside City Hall can be updated to reflect the new Monday meeting dates and time.  Currently, it still states that the regular meeting date and time is on Tuesday at 7:30 PM and has been causing confusion with the public.

Councilwoman Adorno suggested that instead of charging the current rental fees, $414 in-city/$467.50 outside-city, for the newly remodeled City Activity Center, the city should consider lowering them to encourage more usage and revenue for the city.  Ms. Adorno stated that currently the high fees seem to be discouraging any rentals, leaving the facility sitting unused, despite the city spending considerable money to get it updated.  Currently, 1/2 of the rental fee would be held as a security deposit to be returned following the rental, if the facility is left in good condition.  After a long discussion, council agreed that the fees would be lowered to $100 in-city/$150 outside-city with an additional $200 security deposit required, which may be returned if the facility is left in good condition.  This $107 in-city/$83.75 outside-city fee reduction will hopefully encourage additional rentals instead of local residents seeking out other facilities for functions such as birthday parties, weddings, and other social events and also generate much needed revenue for the city.

Councilman Blethen brought up the issue that during a recent planning board meeting, members had agreed to make changes to the current ordinances allowing mobile homes to be replaced with mobile homes if they are damaged or were condemned.  The way the code is currently written, reflecting changes made during the previous administration, any mobile home which had been damaged or even left without utility services for a specific amount of time would be condemned, and would need to be replaced with another more permanent structure before the city would allow anyone to reside on the property.  This was an effort to force the city to clean up it's appearance.  Unfortunately, these code changes had the result of many of the poorest residents paying a very high price and being driven from their homes.  Councilman Blethen said that the wording of these ordinance changes is still in the works, but this change will take place in the near future.

An additional Utility Report will be provided on a monthly basis from W&C providing their findings and explanations of where money is being spent.  The first report should be available next month.

Councilman Kimsey expressed ongoing concerns about how the Utility Department was charging seemingly excessive high fees for non-payment ($50), and reconnection ($50), as well as late fees ($5), making it even more difficult for customers who are already having difficulties affording their utilities.  Mr. Kimsey stated that Auburndale doesn't even have a non-payment fee.  He stated that the main purpose of these fees was to generate revenue for the city with little concern for the residents' ability to afford them.  According to Pam Lawson, these fees generate an average of $6,000 for the city on a monthly basis.  Ms. Lawson did state that the first time a customer is charged the non-payment fee, she has been given authority to waive it.  Each month on the 6th, the non-payment fee will be charged unless the account has been paid in full.  Utility services will be cut off on either the Tuesday or Wednesday following the 6th.  No grace period is permitted, nor is a cut off notice given to customers.  The only option is for customers to arrange for a payment plan prior to the due date, if the customer is unable to make their payment.  If the customer waits until after the due date, no payment plans will be made.   This policy seems pretty unforgiving considering Auburndale allows for a rolling 3 month grace period which results in almost no utility service cut offs.  

The way current city ordinances are written, new utility accounts require an inflated "high risk" deposit on both high risk individuals who may have left unpaid balances on previous accounts, as well as properties where a prior account had been left with an unpaid balance.  This unfair practice has resulted in landlords bearing the burden of having properties were a prior tenant has left an unpaid balance and now any new tenant, regardless of their past credit or payment history, is required to submit the "high risk" utility deposit of over $400, when their typical utility bill may run close to an average of $50 to $150 per month depending on if they have sewer service or not.  Mr. Kimsey felt is was not fair for these individuals to have to come up with more than 3 months of typical utility bills just to open a new account in these situations.  The city obviously wants to make sure that the compounded high fees and interest will be covered by making the deposits so high.  Unfortunately, this is making it next to impossible for landlords to attract tenants when this has occurred because other local utility companies charge significantly lower deposits and apply their high-risk labels in a more fair manner.  How can landlords possibly control how their tenants choose to handle the payments of their individual utility bills?  It is not legal in the state of Florida to hold the property owner responsible for balances left on tenant utility accounts. 

Temporarily, Ms. Lawson has been authorized to charge the standard deposits on properties labeled as "high risk" for new accounts unless the individual opening the account has poor payment history, despite the ordinance stating otherwise.  Ms. Block stated that over the next couple months the city's utility ordinances will be reviewed with the assistance of Woodard & Curran, as well as GAI Consultants of Orlando, the utility consulting firm hired to perform the utility study for the city at a cost of $43,000 back on November 15th, 2010.  For this reason, she did not feel it would be productive to continue further discussion on this topic at this time without the expertise of these parties in on the conversation.  Hopefully, the WAC & SAC, water & sewer access fees, legality will also be addressed during these upcoming ordinance reviews.

During the public comment segment, a few issues which had been addressed to council and the city attorney at previous meetings, and had since been left unanswered, were brought up again:

Attorney Tom Cloud stated that he had contacted an acquaintance whom had been involved in the Cedar Grove city dissolution in 2008.  According to his information, the county had acquired the remaining debt left when the city dissolved.  Cedar Grove was a similarly sized small city in the panhandle of Florida, but had significantly lower debt than Polk City when it dissolved, but their debt was still substantial considering the population ratio.  See additional info in this earlier blog post Cedar Grove, Florida - Case Study. 

The Mayor addressed the reason why a Town Hall meeting type forum where the public can have an open question and answer session about their concerns has not been planned, although it had been promised.  He stated that he has attempted to contact County Officials to get some discussions going about what might occur if Polk City dissolves, but the County has not been willing to work with the city due to the ongoing mediation process/possible future lawsuit over the Mt. Olive Utility situation.  The Mayor stated that he would still be willing to have a town hall meeting as long as the dissolution of the city was not a topic of discussion, since no further factual information has been available and it would all be speculation.

One of the roads near downtown was recently closed to local traffic and has remain closed.  The church adjacent to this road petitioned the county to close this road and voluntarily annexed themselves into the city limits.  This way the city would permit them to close this road and purchase the property where the road currently exists.  The church plans to use this property for other purposes. 

The next regularly scheduled city council meeting is planned for February 14th, 2011, at 7:00 PM.